Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

172 CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.

these two places, in order that the two seas might be connected, the
one with the other; but he feared that the Romans might attack
the shores of the Hedjaz with their ships.
~ Al-Farama is surrounded by a fortified wall of stone without gates,
which is in a state of ruin.
~ It is said that it was in the sea of Al-Kulzum, which is the
Red Sea, opposite to the monastery of Anthony, that God drowned
Pharaoh and his host, and led the prophet Moses and the children of
Pol. 58 b Israel over on dry land by twelve paths; and some of them remain
to this day, and witnesses to them are not wanting1; and this sea is
the Bahr Szlf 2.
~ The history of Sa'id ibn Batrik, the Melkite, relates3 that the
dearth was raging at Medina, near Mecca, and the people of Medina, of
the Hanifite religion, were in great distress; so 'Umar ibn al-Khattab,
in the eighth year of his caliphate, wrote from the Hedjaz to 'Amr ibn
al-'Asi ibn 'Adi, emir of Egypt, to inform him of this. Then 'Amr
ibn al-'Asi sent to 'Umar a caravan of camels loaded with corn, for
which the point of arrival was Medina, and the point of departure Misr.
Then 'Umar wrote to 'Amr commanding him to dig a canal to AlKulzum, that thus the transport of the corn might be facilitated. So
'Amr dug the canal, which passes through Al-Kantarah, and is called
the canal of the Prince of the Faithful; and thus boats brought wheat
and barley from Al-Fustat along the canal to Al-Kulzum, whence they
barbarians, i. e. Phoenicians. But all ambiguity is removed by a passage in AlMas'fdi (quoted by Quatremere, Memn. i. p. I75), who states that the caliph Hrfin
ar-Rashid contemplated making a canal across the isthmus, but was deterred by
the representation that the Greeks would take advantage of it to gain command of
the Gulf of Suez and attack the pilgrim ships on their way towards the holy places
of Arabia. (A. J. B.)
It would seem that these two clauses refer to the army of Pharaoh, some
relics of which are said to have remained.
2 I. e. the Hebrew l-D'D.
3 See Eutychius, Annales, ii. p. 321. This canal of Cairo, or Khaltj Amtzr
al-I'mnimi'n, has already been spoken of on fol. 24.